Your views in 200 words or less

Tag: golf

April30th

When I watch a major golf tournament on TV, I am often lightly disappointed when the scores are far under par. This summer at Chambers Bay, I would love the winning score in the U.S. Open to be even-steven par.

No one complains at the Masters when a beautiful shot comes within 10 feet of the pin only to see it roll back 40 feet into the water. Wouldn’t it be thrilling to see these accomplished pros really have to earn every $7,000 shot?

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July30th

I was very pleased to see your article, “Golf at American Lake helps disabled vets get outdoors” (TNT, 7-29).

As mentioned in the article, the Veterans Affairs golf course, which is completely managed and cared for by more than 200 unpaid volunteers, offers training and rehabilitation through golf, regardless of the types of disabilities and injuries suffered by our troops.

The article also mentioned that pro golfer and living legend Jack Nicklaus has contributed his design services free of charge in order to expand the present nine holes of golf to 18 as the number of rounds played exceeds …

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Sep.16th

The 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in University Place may profit from another major sporting event in another era: the 1923 Dempsey-Gibbons world’s championship prize fight in Shelby, Mont.

Shelby was a small town, approximately midway between Seattle and Minneapolis – somewhat similar to University Place between Seattle and Olympia. Shelby hoped to promote itself and boxing in the West; University Place hopes to promote itself and professional golf in the Northwest.

Both promoters, however, urgently needed an arena and more hotels, restaurants, utilities and transportation facilities to accommodate the crowds, competitors’ entourages and reporters. Few developers were willing to invest …

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Aug.15th

University Place’s creation of a three council-member task force to support the U.S. Open is disturbing.

University Place is governed by a seven-member, elected City Council, not a three-member task force. Presumably, the new task force and its members will be subject to public open meetings laws, and meetings will be well-publicized and available for sewer ratepayer and city taxpayer comment and participation.

Ratepayers and taxpayers are already underwriting Chambers Bay course construction and operations losses to the tune of $31 million in loans and tax revenue diversions, without a firm …

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Feb.21st

Chambers Bay golf course was not designed to be just another course but a tournament and tourist economic development attraction. Yet, every year The News Tribune does a budget-revenue analysis without any consideration of the course’s real goals.

Ironically, you publish a photograph of a golfer from Chicago on the course. Someone might have asked that golfer what hotel he stayed in, where he ate his meals, if he rented a car.

A real analysis of the success of Chambers Bay would be to find out how much sales tax, car …

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Jan.9th

In response to Sara Schilling’s excellent article on the demise of Sumner’s municipal golf course, the prospect of the course ever being run in the black is unlikely. Most local public golf courses, especially those within a 10-mile radius of any Boeing plant, live off revenue from evening nine-hole golf leagues and their weekend tournaments.

The green fees collected from simultaneous league groups sent off the front and back nines and income from drinks, hot dogs and buckets of range balls should easily cover course expenses.